Tom Whalen Poop ’12

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Buy New or Used via Amazon1. Japandroids – Celebration Rock<< Am I old enough to miss being young? How it felt, how it sounded? Who of us ever thought a record would ever, ever, ever again sound like this, feel like this!?

Buy New or Used via Amazon2. Burial – Kindred EP<< Burial’s embrace of long-form, mixtapeish compositions, here and on Truant/Rough Sleeper, was as unexpected as it was revelatory. The texture of this music, both physical and emotional, is simply staggering. This guy’s like the Beatles to me.

Download via Stereogum3. Action Bronson and Party Supplies – Blue Chips<< It’s hard to pin down why Bronson’s playful horny chef routine pulled me in deeper than did the cough-syrupy, more classically street MC class of 2012… on second thought, I guess that’s not really all that hard to pin down at all.

Buy New or Used via Amazon4. Craig Finn – Clear Heart Full Eyes<< I am the perennial Finn fanboy, and 4 is my lucky number. The rest is sort of hard to explain.

Buy New or Used via Amazon5. Cheap Girls – Giant Orange<< It’s funny how old-fashioned terms “college rock” and “alt rock” seem now. I guess it’s also curious that, as I struggle for the appropriate modifiers to sum up the shamelessly simple pleasures of Giant Orange, “old-fashioned” seems strangely appropriate, and also somewhat poignant. Heck, they’re reissuing their old records on Asian Man!!

Buy New or Used via Amazon6. Holy Other – Held<< The pulsing, wordless cry is both Holy Other’s sonic signature and a flag marking its mournfully erotic sonic terrain. Take a look at the cover—that’s exactly what this album sounds like.

Download via Amazon7. Shigeto – Lineage EP<< Producers doing more with less seems to be the order of the moment, now that the dubstep bubble has burst. Shigeto’s Lineage EP uses jazz hands and piano loops to channel RZA channeling Monk on 36 Chambers—quietly mournful, quietly bright.

Buy New or Used via Amazon8. How to Dress Well – Total Loss<< Tom Krell refined the overdriven Lynchian soul of his debut into straight-up cosmic art-school Boys II Men. An inspiring, incredibly heartfelt record.

Buy New or Used via Amazon9. Chairlift – Something<< The album as a whole is terrific, but “I Belong In Your Arms” and “Take It Out On Me” really make this one for me—two absolutely gorgeous tunes.

Download via Amazon10. Angel Olsen – Half Way Home<< More uplifting than any album about death has any business being. A fine secular spiritual that is, I reckon, up many of my fellow Poopster’s alleys—check it out!